Chapter Twenty

A/N: Thank you so much to FireUpTheIQ and Smiles1998 for reviewing the last chapter. It means a lot to me that this story has at least meant a little bit to you, especially as we venture into the last chapter.

Marielle gazed out of her bedroom window at Rue Plumet, smiling as the butterflies fluttered past the window. She had missed the gentle fluttering of wings when she had been in the countryside, almost as if she had left her friends behind. Or that was what she had told herself at least.

Sighing contentedly, the girl returned her attention to the parchment in front of her. She was writing a letter to her young brother Alexis, a way of keeping in contact with the young boy, even when she could no longer see him. She had been surprised when the first letter had returned from the Charbonneau household, as some part of her had imagined the boy's mother would intercept their contact, to prevent the potential of her husband's offspring from coming involved in his legitimate children's lives further. But Madame Charbonneau had allowed her son to write, even enclosing a message herself once, to apologise for her horrendous behaviour. Marielle had never responded to the message, unable to bring herself to go quite that far, but had felt much better for having read it all the same.

"What did Alexis have to say?" Marius asked and the young girl started at the sound. She turned to see the man leaning slightly against her doorframe, a pleasant smile lighting up his face. Since she had returned to Rue Plumet, both Marius and Cosette had scarcely stopped smiling; it was incredibly gratifying to be surrounded by such happiness, such love, after her time with her father.

"He beat my father in a game of ninepins. And Orielle has almost begun to walk, so he spends a great deal of time with her" Marielle recounted, skimming through the wobbly lines of text. She reached the final paragraph and bit her lip, unsure whether to include that certain detail in her accounts. "He says he misses me."

Marius' eyes fell to the floor, before he smiled up at his young child. "Of course he must miss you. I know that I miss you each moment you are out of my sight."

"So do I." Marielle asserted, her attention not quite focused on her papa. "I just feel a little guilty. Alexis had no one else before I came along- Orielle is too young to play with and there are no other children nearby- and I feel like I abandoned him, gave him a taste of happiness and then took it away."

"Marielle, I've told you that you can go and see them any time you like." Marius reminded the girl, who was already shaking her head.

"No, I don't think it would be fair to dangle our friendship in front of him and then leave again. Not to mention the upset it would cause his mother." Marielle asserted and the man smirked at her tone. She sounded so mature for her tender age; it reminded him of a ghost from long ago.

"Do you know who you remind me of?" Marius questioned, crossing the room to take a seat near the girl's writing desk. Hardly intrigued by the conversation, the child continued to write, only making half-hearted sounds of acknowledgement. "You remind me of your mother."

Marielle placed her pen down on the desk, a watery smile encompassing her features. "Do I really?"

"You do." Marius confirmed, nodding his head as he looked wistfully towards the girl. True, he was looking at her, but he saw a street urchin in a raggedy dress, clinging desperately to a doll she had hidden from her father in case he should try to sell it. "Your kindness, your wishes for the best for everyone, even those who may have done you wrong. You've a good heart, Marielle, something you don't see often in the Paris streets. I never saw a heart as good as yours, except for your mother's."

"I think about her sometimes." the little girl admitted, her maturity fading away to leave the fragility of a child still mourning a loss she did not remember experiencing. "Wonder what she would have thought of me, if she would have been proud of me."

"I know she would have." Marius told her, smiling widely. "You are the image of everything she stood for, everything she would have wanted you to be. You are brave, kind, loyal. All the things I loved most about her."

"I'm hardly loyal." Marielle whispered. "I ran away to my father at the first chance, I left you and Cosette, even though you'd always been so good to me."

"You are loyal, Marielle." the man told her, clasping her hands in his own. "You tried to follow your dreams, to find a family you had never had. You weren't to know how your stepmother would treat you."

"That's the thing. I already had a family." the girl argued, clinging tighter to her father's hands. A slight furrow had appeared in the man's brow as she spoke, a contrast to the smile slowly spreading across her face. "You and Cosette were my family, my father and mother in deed if not in blood. You still are. I went searching for something I already had; I just didn't realise until I had given it up."

"Marielle, you never gave up anything. You were a daughter to me even when you went to your own father. And you will remain so even if you choose to see him again." By this point, both of them were blinking through their tears. "I love you, ma petite fille."

"I love you too, Papa." Marielle replied, throwing her arms around the man.

It was strange to think that she had spent so many years longing for a mother long dead and a father who ran before her birth. All she had wanted was a family to love her and comfort her, to hold her hands as she made her way through the ever-changing world. It had taken her all this time to realise that she had had that family all along.

A/N: And we are done! I really hope you guys enjoyed this story. I know it wasn't the most exciting ending, but I felt those sentiments needed to be expressed before the story was done. I've really enjoyed writing this story and I'm sad to see it come to an end, but there we go! I'd love to know what you think of this last chapter, so please review!